Advent 13: What To Do When Last Night Went Off-Piste

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On Day Thirteen of the Mindful Drinking Advent, we’re talking about the morning after the night before — the headache, the anxiety, the “I’m never drinking again” moment — and why shame is the least helpful thing you can reach for today. 

This episode encourages you to choose recovery over regret: hydrate, nourish yourself, move gently, forgive what happened, and reflect honestly on what triggered you so you can handle it differently next time. 

One night doesn’t define your December. Your next choice starts now.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:01

Hi yeah, and welcome to day 13 of our mindful drinking audio advent here on the Mindful Drinking and Moderation in Midlife podcast. Today it's Saturday morning and we're talking about recovery, not regret. Now, it is highly possible that last night was a big party night for you, and perhaps you went out and perhaps you set yourself some really clear intentions, and perhaps you had one too many. Perhaps you had five too many. Perhaps you woke up this morning with a headache and uh anxiety and that uh age old promise of to yourself of I'm never drinking again. Look, you are human. This is Christmas. The social pressure, uh, the peer pressure, the seasonal pressure, it's high at this time of year, and sometimes you just overdo it. You are human. Forgive yourself. That's the message that I want to give you today. The worst thing you can do is spiral in a downward trajectory of shame and disappointment and succumb to that negativity and feeling of failure. You haven't failed, you have been out, you made a plan, perhaps it didn't go the way you want it to, and you have learned something from it that you can take forward into the rest of the season and into the rest of next year. Beating yourself up doesn't undo whatever it is that you did last night, it just makes you feel worse about it. And when you feel worse about it, you're more likely to think, oh well, screw it, I might as well just write off the rest of the month. And that would be such a shame. I'd really hate that for you. So instead of regret today, I want you to choose recovery. Uh, I want you to hydrate, I want you to move your body gently now, don't overdo it. Um, eat something nourishing. Please put down the remnants of last night's kebab or last night's pizza. Um, it's not gonna do you any favors. Put it in the bin, go and get something that that came from the earth at some point. Um, but eat something nourishing, forgive yourself, and look, we're just gonna go again because one night uh off-piste, pun, very much intended, uh, doesn't erase all the good decisions, all the good intentions, all the good efforts that you've made. Don't think of it as starting over, you're just gonna keep going. Um, so yeah, you had a setback. So what? Nobody has gotten anywhere worthwhile in life without having to take a few side steps on the way there. So don't wait until Monday, don't wait until dry January. Your next choice starts today, it starts right now. I want you to be proactive. I want you, once your head is cleared, uh, which hopefully it has by now if you're listening to podcasts, uh, but once your head is cleared, I want you to take an objective look at where things went in a different direction last night. Identify what were those moments that um triggered you to fall back into habits that you're trying to move away from. Uh, and then identifying them alone isn't enough. I then want you to think about and prepare for how you can handle them better going forward. It all depends on you as an individual, it depends on the situation you find yourself in, it depends on the people that are around you. So it's very hard for me to say this is what you should do next time. But I want you to have a think about where you notice that things went differently to how you had hoped that they would, and what you could do to better prepare and to counter it for next time. Uh and like I said, forgive yourself, be kind to yourself because if you don't do it, then nobody else will. On today's Mindful Drinking Advent email, once you open it up, you will see a selection of drinks to help you bounce back a little bit faster with some brain and body boosting drinks, and of course, the discount codes that go with them. So, do make sure that you go and check those out. And I will see you tomorrow. Until then, cheers to a Christmas less intoxicated.